I’m a lifelong Mac guy— an Apple Stockholder and a big Anti-Microsoft guy— I upgrade my hardware about every 2-3 years on average. Last year Veronica went out and upgraded her iMac— she doesn’t do it as often as I do, maybe every 6 years, and she bought a yellow one now that they come in colors. As it happens about two weeks ago #2 and #3 sons each went out and bought new Macs for work— #2 got a blue one and #3 got a green one. #3 had mentioned to me that he was going to pick up the two machines in Natick and I told him I’d meet him there because these things are actually pretty heavy in the box.
The process for buying a Mac is pretty easy if you’re an Apple Card holder— tap your phone, they bring it out of the back and you’re on your way. While we were there I considered upgrading mine too but then I didn't want to carry back three of them.
So it was about a week later that I decided to go ahead, because I’d just did a rare sign up for a credit card offer with a major airline because they offered 85,000 bonus points to anyone who landed in the top 2% of credit ratings and I was confident I could attain that. Adding the Mac purchase (which I paid off instantly) tossed on another 2,000 points— I ordered the machine I wanted and opted for the $9 Two Hour Courier Delivery— that seemed like a deal to me— and of course as soon as I checked out I got a notice that it wasn’t available and it refunded me the $9. I opted to pick it up at the store in Marlborough and made the ride out there about an hour later.
Apple Stores are notoriously different— rubber balls for seats, tons of techs pushing product, and its loaded with Hipsters— I walked in said “nope, nope nope” to the first three techs I passed looking for the oldest and least obnoxious looking one I could find, showed him my QR code on my phone and in seconds I had the Mac and was walking back out of the store.
Upgrading hardware is fairly easy- unless you have things like a Cintiq Drawing Tablet installed like I do, you have to find the new driver, install it, tweak a couple of security settings and find the proper adaptors because now Macs no longer have thunder ports or standard USB plugs.
It took about three hours and I got everything running. I’ve had my 12” Cintiq from WACOM for about eight years, and it works like a charm. Veronica has the 22” version and I’ve tried it but its too big for me. Truthfully, the 12” has always been a little snug, so I decided to see if they’ve added any that I wasn’t aware of and sure enough they had a 16” model so I ordered that and gave my old trusty 12” model to #3 son who is launching his own freelance art career. I think it has a lot of years left so it should serve him well.
The 16” is very similar but I dig the larger size so again after about three hours I got it working— then I went over to #3 son’s apartment and spent about 2 hours getting his tablet working.
The new computer is much faster, no more waiting, no more pinwheels. The old iMac moved into a support role for my home streaming service.
And all is right in the world.
NOTE- Since writing this post I’ve traded my MacBook Air for a full fledged MacBook Pro and I’ve bought a second 16” Cintiq Tablet so I can work downstairs when I’m done working up in my studio for the day.